Potentiometer Bushing Material

I'm wondering if anyone has a source for the raw stock that is used to make split shaft to 1/4" shaft pot adapters similar to these: Guitar & Bass Control Pot Adapter Bushings (2)
By my measurements, it needs to be 0.250" diameter with a 0.007" wall. I'm not picky about material provided it's stainless or non-ferrous. So far my searches for this size in stainless, brass, copper, and aluminum haven't yielded anything.

Iīd get a couple feet (or yards) of proper sized thin walled brass tube and have my friendly Machinist cut a lot of them (43 per foot).
After setting the Lathe up, you can make 200 in 10 minutes, for a very low per-piece cost.
For less than 10 or 20 units, pay through the nose for the ready made ones.
As with everything else, actual part cost is cheap, if you make enough, but setup fees or just "getting into it" set a "floor" below which you canīt go.

As an example, a customer ordered one of my 4 channel 100W mini Club Mixers, which I havenīt made for a few months now, and for which I have no front panels not PCBs left (Cabinet, PSU and Power Amp are "universal")
I cut, folded and painted 10 blank 2U high aluminum front panels (they can be used elsewhere), silkscreened 3 of them and 3 PCBs , the minimum justified because although actual screening takes less than 60 seconds each, the screens have to be properly washed later, which takes almost 20 minutes.
I will actually build 3 Mixer/Preamps anyway, even if only one was asked for.
(My "now that Iīm into it" Theory)
1 for immediate use, and about the 2 extra ones, I know that *if I have them*, Iīll sell them in a jiffy.
Worst case, I publish them in "Mercado Libre", our local branch of EBay.

Itīs good being able to make a lot of things "in house", without depending on external suppliers.

This is good!
Why didnīt I think of it? ["slapping my forehead" smilie]
Or: the actual problem is that the split shaft is *almost* 1/4" diameter, not that bad; the main problem is that unless by sheer chance the screw head gets exactly in the middle of the slot, it will crush the shaft which will become irregularly "thinner", making the rotation wobbly.
*Maybe* if you can insert a proper thickness shim in the slot (it might even be pick-thickness plastic, cut with a scissor) you get "90% of the result with 10% the effort".
Try it, itīs so simple.

We'll find out, I ordered 10 of them. If they work, great, I can take measurments and keep looking for raw stock. If not, then I'm out 10 bucks, big whoops.

The adapters in the OP are very likely the Allparts adapters which are just cut pieces of brass tubing like you get at the hardware store.

All of the 1/4" OD brass tubing I've come across is 0.014" wall or greater, so if these parts are really what they say they are, it's not made from stock off the shelf tubing. It's either drawn down for thinner wall, or bored out (which I can't see as being economical, so I don't think that's the case).

So, heat shrink material does work, but requires some finagling to make it fit. This involves shirnking the tubing around the pot shaft (which results in a ~0.254" OD), allowing it to cool, removing it, inserting it into the knob, and then pressing the knob onto the shaft.

I received the bushings from the guitar electronics site linked in the first post. I haven't measured all of them to see what kind of spread they have, but the one I measured was 0.249" OD, 0.005" wall; they looked about 5/16" long, but I didn't measure. These are extruded, not typical 0.014" wall and bored out. The edges aren't deburred which makes it kinda difficult to push them into a 0.250" hole, so some sanding is in order. I haven't got the magnifying glass out, but judging by the burr, they were parted on a lathe.

So, heat shrink material does work, but requires some finagling to make it fit. This involves shirnking the tubing around the pot shaft (which results in a ~0.254" OD), allowing it to cool, removing it, inserting it into the knob, and then pressing the knob onto the shaft.

Why?.
Cut the heat shrink slightly longer, so when heated it tightens around the shaft, but also bends inwards at its unsupported end.
That lip makes it easier for it being pushed into the knob.
You still need to put some sheet material in the shaft slot, to avoid its deformation by the knob screw.

Why?. Cut the heat shrink slightly longer, so when heated it tightens around the shaft, but also bends inwards at its unsupported end. That lip makes it easier for it being pushed into the knob. You still need to put some sheet material in the shaft slot, to avoid its deformation by the knob screw.

I appreciate your contribution, but your approach sucks. I'm an engineer too; stop talking down to me. And please, read my posts before you reply (referring to your first reply in the thread where you clearly didn't read my OP).

Now for your question as to "why":

Because that's the process I came up with at 9PM last night. Further, when the heat shrink tubing is shrunk around the shaft, and in the case of the shaft/heat shrink/knob combination I have it creates an interference fit, when the knob is pushed onto the now heat shrink covered shaft, the heat shrink tubing is pushed downward covering the pot muting thread which requires trimming. While your approach of leaving the heat shrink tubing long reduces this problem (I just tried it), it is still a problem. Now, if the knob were say reamed out with a 6.5mm or F size drill bit, or I used a different knob which had a slightly larger ID, this would resolve the interference fit and eliminate all of this talk of different assembly order, but I digress.

As for the shim, depending on relative location of the set screw to the indicator on the knob (if there is one), and the pots rotational position in the panel and any indicating marks on it, if the set screw aligns with the slot in the pot shaft, tightening the set screw will not damage the pot shaft. Now, if everything doesn't work out to those conditions (there's alot of "if's" in there), then yes a shim will be required. Now since shim stock is both readily available in a myriad of sizes and materials, and is inexpensive, I am focusing on finding material for adapting the diameters.

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Originally Posted by defaced

the one I measured was 0.249" OD, 0.005" wall; they looked about 5/16" long

The bushings are actually 1/4" in length. The OD and wall dimensions are within +/- 0.001" from those I reported.

Also for anyone else looking for this same information, I'll save you the trouble of contacting the Micro Group. While they specialize in small diameter tubing, they are mainly a carrier of stainless tubing, and their price this material size (at the date of this post, SS prices fluctuate violently at times because of Chrome and Nickel prices) is about 17 bucks a foot. This was for quantities under 10 feet, the next price break was 16 bucks a foot. I forgot to call Enzo's source. I'll get to that tomorrow and report back tomorrow.